Thursday, July 21, 2016

So what's this then? eh?

Looking for new horizons? Well how about this then? It was the summer of 1976. We were 'ensorcelled' by the arrival in town of Russell P, a trainee teacher at the time, and a master of WRG's 3rd Edition Ancients wargames rules. Russell arrived with fellow teacher trainee Kevin O, and between them they revolutionised ancients wargaming in Christchurch. Russell was a master of creating armies from what little we had available, even casting his own figures from conversions sculpted from those few plastic figures available, often adapted with the application of plasticine.

I had a Roman army at the time, carefully crafted using those wonderfully historical Airfix Roman legionaries. I was longing for something different. Russell suggested Huns. Um, how does that work then? Simple, he cried. Take Airfix Hussars, carve away the head dress, clean up the pelisse, remove the sabre and replace with a javelin, a quick barbarian paint job, and you have Huns.

Several boxes of Hussars later, and I had 56 Huns, later based for a later edition of WRG's ancients rules ( I can't recall which) giving m 28 bases of light horse. They had their share of the limelight, and then we moved on. So this army, 40 years old this year, has sat in a box ever since.

Until NOW!!!

I have a plan.

The basic box of Hunnic light horse

In close up

Hunnic Nobles... long lance and shield, based 3 to a base to make them knights

More of the light horse

And Attilla himself .. can't recall the figure manufacturer (maybe Hinchcliffe?), but he always looked to me as if he had a dislocated shoulder.

And they were the only army I ever tried to protect with gloss varnish. I cringe when I think of it. So, there are quite a few repairs to be made, horses to be glued to bases, riders to horses, and paint touch ups. They had a lot of use in their day.

They aren't exactly top quality, but they do have an endearing quality. They look suitably 'barbarian', or 'hairy' as we used to say.

They'll do for Big Battle DBA. And what else he cried? Watch this space.

10 comments:

Great stuff Robin. I just received some 20mm Huns from Newline (thanks Brexit!), to supplement the not-as-historical-as-I-had-hoped-but-still-quite-lovely LuckyHuns, to go up against my plastic and Newline LateImperial Romans.

Yeah I remember thinking that vat the time.. 1976 is a long time ago, and there weren't many options back then. Perhaps the most versatile figures were those Airfix ACW cavalry. Some of them became Goths. Others became Romain light cavalry... LOLR

Good memories. I remember playing WRG ancients in the 70s with everything converted from Airfix figs with plenty of drawing pin shields and darning needle spears. I recall that the Robin Hood set in particular was the basis of many armies. Hussars to Huns is very creative.

About Me

Public admission time: it was back in the late '60s that I began 'gaming along with a great group of friends. I game a wide range of periods, but my all time favourite rules set is 'Volley and Bayonet' by Frank Chadwick. I am also a great fan of the Spearhead stable of rules, especially Great War Spearhead written by Shawn Taylor. Most recently I have become a convert to HotT (Hordes of the Things, the fantasy variant of DBA). I also play DBA and Armati, with a smattering of the GW rules.